Smoky ancho chicken with sticky onions, whipped tahini & pomegranate
- Thomasina Miers
Published: September 10, 2025 at 11:34 AM
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Serves 4 - 6
Easy
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 40 mins
A star rating of 5 out of 5.29 ratingsRate
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To call this a traybake does this recipe a disservice – and yet a traybake is precisely what it is. Golden, crispy chicken skin and sticky pomegranate onions meld with sweet heat from the ancho chilli and lovely aromatics from the spices. The creamy tahini gives the plate a savoury note. Bliss. The juices are to die for.
This recipe has been extracted from Thomasina Miers new cookbook, Mexican Table (£28, Quadrille). Photographs Matt Russell.
Dairy-free
Egg-free
High-protein
Low sugar
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Ingredients
Nutrition
Units:
MetricUS
-
8 chicken thighs
or 1 chicken, jointed
-
3 red onions
each cut into 6 wedges
-
500g potatoes
peeled and cut into chunks
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4 tbsp olive oil
-
2-3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
plus extra to serve
-
large bunch of flatleaf parsley
For the adobo rub
-
3 garlic cloves
skin on
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2 tsp fennel seeds
-
1 tsp cumin seeds
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30g ancho chilli flakes
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½ tsp ground cinnamon
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1½ tsp soft brown sugar
-
3 tbsp orange juice
-
3 tbsp olive oil
For the whipped tahini
- 100g tahini
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp paprika
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sea salt
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Nutrition: per serving
-
kcal598
-
fat39g
-
saturates7g
-
carbs26g
-
sugars11g
low
-
fibre8g
-
protein32g
high
-
salt2.54g
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Method
-
step 1
Heat the oven to 240C/220C fan/gas 9. Take the chicken out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
-
step 2
To make the rub, heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic cloves, still in their skins, and cook for 6-7 mins until the skins have blackened and the garlic is soft. Add the fennel and cumin seeds, toast gently for 1 min, then pour in the ancho chilli flakes. Toast for 10 seconds more, then empty the lot into a small blender or pestle and mortar, slipping the skins from the garlic. Pound or blitz to a paste with the cinnamon, brown sugar and 1½ tsp salt, before stirring through the orange juice and olive oil. Rub this all over the chicken pieces.
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step 3
Toss the onion wedges and potatoes in a large baking tray with 2 tbsp of the olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 20 mins before popping the chicken on top of the vegetables, tossing the whole lot with the excess adobo, the pomegranate molasses and the rest of the olive oil. Roast for 15 mins in the middle of the oven, then reduce the oven temperature to 210C/190C fan/gas 6½ and roast for another 15 mins. Season to taste.
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step 4
Meanwhile, make the whipped tahini. Simply blitz all the ingredients in a small food processor with 120ml water until the mixture is light and blousy.
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step 5
Serve the chicken on a large plate in the middle of the table, with the whipped tahini spooned in a circle around the edge of the plate, the chicken in the middle and the whole lot scattered with parsley and a drizzle more of the pomegranate molasses.
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A star rating of 5 out of 5.29 ratings
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